Defendants DCo, LLC (formerly known as Dana Companies) and Ford Motor Company (collectively “Defendants”) recently obtained a defense verdict in an asbestos personal injury matter following a nine day trial that took place in the Western District of Washington. Plaintiffs alleged the decedent, Patrick Jack, developed mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos from products manufactured or supplied by the Defendants. Plaintiff passed away at the age of 81. Specifically, Plaintiffs claim that Mr.…

In Summerlin v. Philip Morris USA, et al., 1581-cv-5255, following a five-week trial before Judge Heidi Brieger, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff amounting to $43,100,000. Three defendants remained through verdict; however, the jury found that only R.J. Reynolds was liable. The jury found that defendants, Hampden Automotive and Philip Morris USA, breached the implied warranty of merchantability for selling a defectively designed product, but neither were found to be a…

On June 29, 2018, a New Jersey state appeals court ruled that a superior court improperly allowed a jury to consider evidence, not represented at trial, in allocating damages among nine defendants in an asbestos case. The state appeals court ordered a new trial in Rowe v. Bell & Gossett Company to address the issue of re-apportioning the $1,500,000.00 jury verdict.
Throughout Ronald Rowe’s thirty-plus year career working as an automobile mechanic, and repairing and servicing…

Talk is cheap…until lawyers get involved.
“Lawyers: are persons who write a 10,000 word document and call it a brief.” – Franz Kafka
Mouthpiece: n. old-fashion slang for one’s lawyer. Burton’s Legal Thesaurus, 4E. (2007). Retrieved August 8, 2018, from https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mouthpieceThere are thousands of sated comedians in the world who make a living off the caricature of loquacious litigators. Indeed, it is probably a fair statement that attorneys like to talk. Attend any bar event…

Often times we, as attorneys, need subtle reminders of the power of burden shifting during discovery. We were provided that reminder in a recent, though unpublished, take-home asbestos appellate court opinion which upheld a trial court’s granting of a motion for summary judgment. (Foglia v. Moore Dry Dock Co., No. A142125, 2018 WL 1193683 (Cal. Ct. App. Mar. 8, 2018)
The appellate court in Foglia agreed with the trial court decision that the plaintiffs could…

In DeLong v. Rhode Island Sports Center, Inc., et al., a former college hockey player successfully appealed a Rhode Island Superior Court decision granting an ice rink’s motion for summary judgment in a case alleging that he was poisoned by an ice resurfacer after finding that circumstantial evidence present in the record was sufficient to raise a factual dispute. 182 A.3d 1129 (R.I. 2018).
The plaintiff alleged that he inhaled noxious fumes that emanated…

In a recent case, a Rhode Island Jury awarded $31.3 million to Brett and Stacie Smith after a 2014 swimming accident in a pond at the University of Rhode Island left Mr. Smith paralyzed from the chest down. The jury found that the University of Rhode Island was negligent in its failure to post warning signs and to inform its guests that swimming was prohibited.
The Smiths were attending a wedding during the weekend…

Ramsey v. Georgia Southern University Advanced Development Center, et al., No. 305, 2017, C.A. No. N14C-01-287 ASB (Del. June 27, 2018).
On June 27, 2018, the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware issued a fifty-seven-page opinion in the above-mentioned case, creating new precedent for Delaware employer liability in secondary or “take-home” asbestos cases. Below is a summary of both the relevant factual and procedural background, as well as Chief Justice Strine’s opinion.
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